I FEEL PRETTY

Michelle Williams     Amy Schumer     Emily Ratajkowski     Aidy Bryant     Busy Phillips     

Rory Scovel     Lauren Hutton     Naomi Campbell     Tom Hopper

     Self-confidence becomes the primary thrust of the story, illustrating how it can over-ride reality in both a positive and negative sense.  Amy Schumer as Renee, plays her usual role of being a buxom young woman, convinced that she is disadvantaged because of her looks, and taking a jaded view of men who seem to her to favor pretty women.  She imagines that someone as beautiful and well proportioned as Mallory (Ratajkowski) has the world at her feet and can’t possibly be disappointed or hurt.  

     Writers/directors Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein use a literal bump on the head to show how a change in attitude can do wonders for a girl’s self-esteem. Magically, Renee gets up from the floor after a fall at her spinning class bursting with a self-confidence that defies reality; and, interestingly, people seem to overlook physical appearances and go along with her delusion.  She charms people, and utilizes traits of thoughtfulness, creativity, and leadership to gain their respect and make a better life for herself.

     Of course, everything will not go smoothly all the way, and Renee will learn some lessons about friendship and genuineness that will give her a better hold on life, herself, and those she cares about.  

     The premise as acted out in I Feel Pretty,in its emphasis on attitude and outlook influencing life events, is rather simplistic and concrete.  Although it’s billed as a comedy, the story is straightforward, and lacks creativity in making a true-to-life story be funny and profound at the same time.  It’s much too earnest and lacks subtlety to accomplish that. Better films in which to see the transformation of women as a result of changes in perception and experience, for instance, include Maudie, Megan Leavey,andPatti Cake$.

     Amy Schumer is gifted in portraying the loveable, spastic, good-hearted character she plays here, but I think she is capable of more than that, and would like to see her in more substantive roles.  I fear she will be like Melissa McCarthy, who continues along in the same role that made her famous, despite her talent.  Refreshingly, Michelle Williams has taken on a completely different, comedic role here.  Who would’ve thought?  This paragon of depth in character pulls off the role of a beautifully masked intelligent, powerful woman with a high-pitched “girly” voice.  She is the only really interesting, novel character, and I wish she had been given more screen time.

     Actors in the roles of Renee’s friends, Scovel (Ethan), Bryant (Vivian), and Jane (Phillips), give vibrant color to the film, and convey the genuineness that Renee needs to keep her grounded.  I especially appreciated Scovel’s character, who goes against male stereotypes.

Look beyond Amy Schumer’s role (not new—although very well done) to identify those that exemplify openness to the novel, tolerance for differences, and go against stereotype.

Grade:  C+                                                By Donna R. Copeland

SNATCHED

Amy Schumer     Goldie Hawn   Wanda Sykes     Joan Cusack     Ike Barinholtz     Christopher Meloni

     The general audience is likely to get a big kick out of Amy Schumer’s new movie, although it is already being criticized for being racist, just based on the previews, and its damaging the travel business in South America by implying that it’s dangerous to go there.  I’m not a big fan of Schumer’s movies or TV shows, except for Trainwreck, but the same themes pretty much carry through all her work: Playing up sexy and trying for laughs from drunkenness, being cheeky, and shocking pronouncements.  Many people enjoy that kind of humor, but it leaves me neutral or even cold (as in the case of alcohol).  There were only about four incidents in Snatched that made me laugh.  One was a shot of Linda’s (Hawn) sculpture of a cat.  Another was when Ruth (Sykes, a gifted comedienne) is warning Emily (Schumer) about traveling in South America with her mother.  Ruth doesn’t believe it’s safe to walk anywhere outside the resort, and cites a statistic that one in four tourists is kidnapped, saying, “See, one, two, three (Ruth, Emily, Linda); someone’s missing!”  Still another was Amy doing a somersault to knock down a really bad guy who deserved it.  This slapstick kind of humor can make me laugh, but like many jokes on TV and in movies, they’re repeated not just once, not twice, but three times. 

     The fourth good-comedy moment was when watching the Meloni character, Roger, a “tour guide”, leading the two kidnapped women out of the Amazon Jungle.  These scenes are some of the best written in Snatched by Katie Dippold.  He is a three-dimensional character created by Dippold, and Meloni makes him come to life with subtlety and comedic timing.  I can also say that Cusack’s character of an ex-special ops agent who never speaks a word, is stunning in her actions—some acrobatic.

     As you could see from the preview of this movie, Emily is dumped by her musician boyfriend after booking a vacation in Ecuador with him.  None of her friends can go with her, and since she has a nonrefundable ticket, she’s so desperate she insists that her phobic mother (Hawn as Linda) go with her, arguing that it will do Linda good.  Emily throws caution to the winds when a handsome man (Bateman) flirts with her in a bar and she spends a drunken (of course!) evening with him, heedless of any cautionary information she’s been given. 

     Soon after, Emily and Linda get kidnapped while touring outside the resort.  Even worse, Colombian cartel men become involved, making it even more dangerous.  Schumer and Hawn put their dramatic and comedic skills into these scenes, and they are good; it’s just that the material they’re working from is formulaic for this genre.  It’s often over the top and just plain silly. 

     Music by Chris Bacon and Theodore Shapiro and cinematography by Florian Ballhaus enhance the beauty and cultural richness of the production, directed well by Jonathan Levine.

A movie that, despite its humor, alarms the South American tour industry.

Grade:  D+                                    By Donna R. Copeland

MISERY LOVES COMEDY

--> Amy Schumer   Bobby Cannavale   Jon Favreau   Jimmy Fallon   Judd Apatow   Freddie Prinze, Jr.   Martin Short   James L. Brooks   Lewis Black   Richard Lewis   Matthew Perry   Christopher Guest  Kevin Nealon   Jason Reitman   Bob Saget   Steve Coogan

-->

Misery Loves Comedy is a clever title, it turns out, because in this revue of comedians’ entry into that world—what came before—and what has happened since does reveal some of the highlights—successes and failures—that drew them like moths to a fire.  Sometimes it was that they suddenly realized they could be funny and that they enjoyed the limelight.  The other side is the experience of absolute failure (dead silence in the audience) and feelings of utter worthlessness.  Parents’ reactions to their acts had a profound impact on them; e.g., “You can always go back to Conan, right?” or simply  “Your jeans fit nice.”  Rather than deterring them, such comments made the comics more determined to pursue their dreams.

For some, joking is a way of coping.  Cannavale tells about getting beat up at school, and when he tells his family and they don’t have much of a response, he makes a joke, and then they laugh.  Jermaine Clement says he was always laughing at his family; he loved his uncles’ jokes.  Jim Norton realized that no one—even football players—bothered you if you were funny because they were afraid you might mock them.  He finds making people laugh a “power thing.”  Nick Swardson found that comedy took over and did for him what drugs were doing so he couldl dispense with them.  After constantly failing at sports, Apatow in desperation to be socially acceptable made people laugh by pretending to be a slot machine.  He’d put rocks up his nose and have people pull his arm down, whereupon the rocks would fall out of his nose.

Other times, the comedians were simply playful.  Guest discovered ventriloquism, which he would do in class.  The teacher didn’t know where the sound was coming from, inaccurately guessed, and made the wrong person leave the room.  Apatow would take a huge recorder and wangle his way into studios to interview stars like Jerry Seinfeld.

But the comedians also talk about their craft—how important timing is, how they can predict with their “laugh ears” when a laugh is going to erupt, and how they have been inspired by those who came before (especially Lenny Bruce Richard Prior, and George Carlin).  Several talk as well about the bond among comedians, how they’re drawn toward each other at gatherings and talk shop.

The film ends with a brief discussion about whether one has to be miserable to be funny.  Altogether, this is an informative and interesting film that is successful in getting behind what makes us laugh at comedy—and comedians.  Lovers of comedy will likely be especially drawn to this interesting and entertaining documentary.

What makes a comedian?

Grade B-                                                    By Donna R. Copeland

TRAINWRECK

Amy Schumer     Bill Hader     Brie Larson     Tilda Swinton     Vanessa Bayer     LeBron James

Trainwreck is a successful collaboration between Amy Schumer, the writer and star, and Judd Apatow, the director, and blends together their type of humor.  I personally think Schumer elevates what Apatow might do, although she is considered pretty raw herself.  Judd saw Schumer on one of Howard Stern’s shows, and their collaboration began soon after that when he read a script she was writing and essentially taught her how it’s done, encouraging her to write about what was going on in her life.  It was the first version of this film, and when I saw its current version at the SXSW Film Festival, it was still being called a work in progress. 

            I love the way the movie opens (as seen in the preview) with Amy’s father announcing to his two daughters (of about ages 7 and 5) that “Monogamy is not realistic!”  Of course, Amy the younger had no idea what the term meant then, but by the time she is a young adult, she has taken his philosophy about marriage to heart, and diligently plays the field, ditching any man who starts to get too close.  The story is about how that’s working out for her.

            She is convinced that she loves her life and her work, which is writing for a men’s magazine, and is excited about an assignment given to her by her gutsy, unpredictable boss Dianna (Swinton, once again hardly recognizable).  The assignment is to get a profile of sports doctor Aaron Conners  (Hader), a rising star in sports medicine with LeBron James as one of his patients.  She meets Conners, they hit it off, and begin a hot romance.  Amy is unprepared for the depth of feeling that arises across time, and tests her basic philosophy to its limits with great comedic and passionate force.

            The film is not all comedy and froth; characteristic of Apatow’s films, the characters spend some time with real-life issues and character-changing moments.  So Amy’s growing knowledge of herself and her relationship with her sister (Larson) and her father in the nursing home provide opportunities for some soul-enriching, insightful moments that give the film more substance.

            Schumer is a talented actress, and Hader is just as successful here in a dramatic role as he was in a similar drama-comedy, Skeleton Twins.  Supporting cast (Larson, Swinton, Bayer) keep the quality high, as well as the “non-actors” LeBron James, along with Amar’e Stoudemire, Tony Romo, and Chris Evert in cameo roles. 

Good Schumer humor.

Grade:  A-                                    By Donna R. Copeland